[aprssig] APRS Location to Text

[William McKeehan]

Comments below

On Wed, April 23, 2008 2:44 pm, Keith VE7GDH wrote:
> William KI4HDU wrote...
>
>> That type of text is the end result that I'm looking for; however, I'd
>> rather know how findu generates that text so I could do it myself...
>
> As pointed out, you can go to somewhere like findu.com, aprs.fi,
> db0anf.de etc. to see the location of an APRS station. If you want to
> "do it yourself" why don't you install an APRS client like UI-View
> www.ui-view.org or Xastir www.xastir.org ? Whether you are going to a
> website to view the data or viewing it in somethinig like UI-View, all
> it is really doing is placing a symbol with a callsign (or object name)
> attached to at the correct location based on the data that is included
> in the beacon.

As you have seen, I run several APRS Clients - UI-View is not my favorite, but
I run it from time to time to know how it works so I can help other users set
it up and run it.

>
>> maybe with some custom locations that I insert.
>
> With something like UI-View running, you could generate an APRS object
> at a location that you chose. Oh... you are already running UI-View with
> KI4HDU-4. Look in the help for OBJECT. The easiest way to generate one
> is to click on the map and the location it should be displayed at and
> hit F5. Check SETUP - MISC to set a reasonable "object interval" rate.
>
> However, knowing now that you are running UI-View, maybe you meant
> exactly what you said...  how to "translate an APRS position into
> something human readable? For example, KI4HDU-7 is in Kodak, TN" rather
> than graphically seeing it on the map.

That is correct - I meant exactly what I said. I do not want a graphical
client; I want some program that will spit out text given a location.

>
> PS - you appear to be using an obsolete path from KI4HDU-7...
> RELAY,WIDE2-1  The "RELAY" part is obsolete in North America. Even if
> there are obsolete digis near that you still support RELAY, I would
> encourage anyone to not use RELAY.

obsolete - I would disagree. The definition of obsolete is "no longer in use
or no longer useful". I know well the area that I live and the digi's that
surround me. Knowing that the one digi that I can hit reliably ONLY responds
to RELAY,WIDE and TN, I run RELAY,WIDE when I'm mobile in it's coverage range.
There are still a few fill-in digi's that also respond to RELAY which is why i
run the two hop old-style path.

I think you mean that RELAY and WIDE have been depreciated in North America -
a fact that I am well aware of and am working to get things changed in the
area of the country that I reside. We had a new digi up at the same location
as the one that I use and it was a new style, but it did not survive the harsh
environment and has been off-line for a good while now.

If you want to check my packet history, you'll notice that when I leave this
area, I switch to the "standard" WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 - however, if that does not
work, I'll try RELAY,WIDE. I use what works to get the message out.

> Be part of the solution instead of
> part of the problem. Same for KI4HDU-9 which is using RELAY,WIDE both of
> which are obsolete. The old RELAY and WIDE digis will cause all kinds of
> ping-ponging of locations because there isn't any dupe checking.

Only if there are multiple digi's around that support RELAY and WIDE. As it
is, there is only one in the area that supports WIDE, so the duplication is
kept to a minimum.

> KI4HDU-JS when last used didn't have a validated TCPIP connection.

I'm not sure where you're getting that information. I just checked and I'm
currently connected to first.aprs.net with a verified filtered feed.
>
> 73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
> --
> "I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"

73
-- 
William McKeehan
KI4HDU
http://mckeehan.homeip.net
Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/mckeehan